Well, life being as it is, it seems I may be about to become a talking head. Over the weekend I was filmed to be part of a documentary titled Walking Fool, directed and starring Mark E. Phillips, produced by John Maslowski I was there as the bookish, professorial, “walking expert.” Want to know about the Savannah Theory - I'm your man. Here are Mark and I faking spontaneity:
Mark is the kind of pedestrian who makes me feel like a complete trifler. He has made several attempts, only the last one successful, to walk across America. Cheap technology means that he’s been able to film pretty much all of it. Editing is currently underway.
I don’t really know Mark at all but having met him briefly, having seen his website and the various clips I’ve seen, he seems to be a man with the kind of sensibility I like, essentially serious (nobody who walk thousands of miles across America is completely frivolous) but he’s also well aware of the unbearable lightness of being. He ain't no Cheryl Strayed, I'm pleased to say. Above and below are some of his postings.
Of course he suffered for his art, so that we don’t have to, but it’s seeing that back pack that really makes me feel his pain. There are times when I that even carrying a camera and some water is an impediment to walking, Mark’s pack sometimes weighed as much as 70 pounds, I’m told.
The idea of course is that the film will be shown at film festivals, win prizes, and then there’ll be a spin off TV show and a web series, and a lot more walking. I do hope it all happens, and I also hope I don’t end up on the cutting room floor.
The website, with trailer, is here:
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